Why can't archaeologists find evidence of a christian church having existed before the second century a.d. ?

Answer 1

Because it didn't?

Answer 2

Chosen,
The First Century Christians were tortured and murdered for their Religious Beliefs. They were fed to lions, burned alive in the Colliseum, tarred, ripped apart, and had no open religious displays in many places. Those who did were generally the ones who were killed first. In places where the CHURCH was present, it was destroyed afterwards because those who fell from Christianity were generally turning to satan's path and did not want the CHURCH to be seen by others. Have a wonderful evening and a glorious weekend.
Thanks,
Eds

PS... Archeologists found the Dead Sea Scrolls which have shown the First Century CHURCH existence in it's writings. (Read Acts 1-Revelation)


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Answer 3

They have! Ever heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Radio-carbon-dating proves the were written shortly after the asension of Christ. Not only that but the original parchments that the New Testiment of the Bible were written on had to be written before 2nd century because the author would have died before then. There are no buildings other than the dead sea town of Kumron where the dead sea scrolls were written, because early Christians were hunted down and killed for their faith. It before mid to late 2nd century that buildings or rather cave dwellings were designated as churches.

Answer 4

The early christains were happy to meet in homes to conduct prayers and teaching. It was the catholic church to introduce the concept of buildings as house of prayers, during the 4th to 5th century. Today there is a trend to go back to home church services. It allows for better more personal involvement and expanding to other house churches. I prefer the home services.

Answer 5

The earliest Christian churches were house churches that met in people's homes. Some time passed before anyone built special church buildings to meet in.

Answer 6

Because before that they didn't have special buildings for that, they just met in each others' homes. Jewish people did too, in fact the word 'synagogue' originally meant simply a meeting, and later, by extension, a meeting hall.

Eventually Christian congregations grew large enough (an rich enough) that they built special buildings for meeting. You wouldn't have expected that to happen right away, would you?

Answer 7

Because the bible makes it clear that the early church met in the temple and in peoples houses, not buildings called churches.
And the building is not the church anyway, it is the people.

Acts 2:46
And they , continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house......

Acts 5:42
And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

There you go.

Answer 8

In the areas where you would expect to find them, Mithraism prevailed. Many of the caves and rooms under major buildings in Rome have been located.

Answer 9

The early church met in homes.

Later churches were built on the pattern of the synagogue. There really is no instruction in the Bible for a church building.

Answer 10

1. They met in HOMES.

Romans 16:5 "Greet also the church that meets in the house of Priscilla and Aquila..."

1Corinthians 16:19... "Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly because of the Lord’s love. So does the church that meets in their house."

Colossians 4:15 "... Also give my greetings to Nympha and the church that meets in her house."

Philemon 1:2 We are also sending it to our sister Apphia and to Archippus. He is a soldier of Christ together with us. And we are sending it to the church that meets in your home.

Acts 2:46 Every day they met together in the temple courtyard. In their homes they broke bread and ate together. Their hearts were glad and honest and true.

Churches meeting in homes seems to have been the broad pattern of the primitive church and not merely isolated instances. Since many of the members were poor, the group probably had significant difficulty just taking care of essentials, as Paul's repeated "collections for the saints" testify.

2. In the New Testament, "church" is only used of a building in figurative terms. -- 1Peter 2:5 You also are like living stones. As you come to him you are being built into a house for worship. There you will be holy priests. You will offer spiritual sacrifices. God will accept them because of what Jesus Christ has done.

3. The organization of the primitive church did not lend itself to "mega-churches" since the congregations were built around the people who could easily gather in a home. Until at least the mid second century, there were NO "bishop of Rome" type church leaders. Elders=presbyters, pastors=shepherds, bishops=overseers (These "=" words translate the same Greek words)... all derive from 3 word families in the Greek New Testament. We see in Acts 20 (Paul and the Ephesian elders) that all 3 word groups refer to the same LOCAL church leaders with no apparent distinction among them, i.e. bishops weren't in charge of elders or vice versa, all referred to the same group of people (The scriptures speak of them for any congregation as plural. It should not be a single person in the role, but 2 or more.). The "arch-bishop" or senior church ruler over a city or other area was not part of the New Testament pattern, but was a second-third century departure from that pattern.

This change seems to have been related to the introduction of rented or owned meeting halls in the second and later centuries.

Answer 11

Just like my fellowship group now, we meet in homes and don't have a special building for worship. To an archaeologist they would just see a house.